"Another sign of the transition from the wet to the dry season was to be seen in the immense number of jute-stem stacks standing on every field and lawn," wrote Nirad Chaudhry in his Autobiography of an Unknown Indian. "After the bark which yields
A rare artist-painted postcard, likely by an amateur. Sir Malcolm Darling (1880-1969), a "maverick" I.C.S. Officer who spent over 40 years in Punjab, was a friend of E.M.
A very early postcard of Darjeeling which nicely represents, visually, the colonial project: a sprawling European building dominating lush grounds while tiny workers pluck away at tea leaves under the watchful gaze of a man in a solar topee.
Jute was one of the major agricultural products during the Raj and for some period afterwards, with most of the crop grown in East Bengal, and the fiber processed in mills in and around Kolkata.
A well-reserved "Lichtdruck" in German or "light-print" which offers the touch of a painted work for one anna.
"Thousands of these carts, all over Bombay. 14/4/06"
A less-typical image of an "Indian well," with a rugged sloping foreground that reminds the viewer how far beneath water could lie and the messiness of its extraction.
Women of Kashmir pounded grain to remove hard shells and grind it into flour using long wooden poles; those who lived in small boats moored along the banks of rivers sat at the prows while pounding grain.
Traditional wet rice farming involves keeping the rice seeds and young plants submerged under water to keep weed infestation at bay until the young rice plants are well established.
One of those postcards which remind you what an exceptional artist M.V. Dhurandhar was. In the midst of a harvest, with giant sheaves of the crop as if pulled apart like curtains, stands a woman in red with sickle in hand.
